Highland Park, IL chooses a sensible approach instead of banning the phone book

Three months ago today I posted about Highland Park, Illinois pushing the nanny-state agenda by banning the phone book, you know, the Yellow Pages and similar publications in the name of saving trees. Forget that most of the paper used for these books come from recycled material, users of course have the option of placing the old Yellow Pages in their recycling bin--and best of all, people can opt out of receiving the books if they don't want them.

On the other hand, many people--not all of them seniors--prefer paging through printed material when shopping from home. Even today--not everyone have Internet access.

Blogging, as with economics, is often a dismal science. So it's with great joy that I report that Highland Park is backing off of its phone book ban proposal. The Highland Park Patch reports that the Highland Park City Council passed a resolution last month that encourages making it easier for residents of the Chicago North Shore community to opt out of receiving the Yellow Pages and related publications.

Oh, one more item: Local businesses are the predominant advertisers in the Yellow Pages and the Yellowbook. Highland Park would have probably cost itself sales tax revenue by going through with its ban.

Related post:

Chicago suburb wants to ban the phone book

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